Every once in a lifetime, I meet someone so profoundly amazing, to be with them is to stand in the presence of brilliance. My mind can hardly focus on witty repartee as it tries to keep up and assimilate the input from a dazzling source of soul light.

I want to introduce you to a friend who is just such a person. She’s beautiful, gifted and lovely, inside and out. And, as amazing as her renown and talents are, she is all the more so engaging, because to talk with her, she will never, ever, point to all of her accomplishments. Her name is Christi Stewart-Brown and today is her fiftieth birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRISTI!

Christi Stewart-Brown

But, I am not bound by such compelling modesty. I can share the profound points of her chocked full CV without any humility whatsoever. In fact, I’m sharing not as much to praise Christi, as she’s had plenty of that, but rather, so you know this little Sunbonnet is Smart enough to know someone this special! Why, every time I read about her, or find out about her latest accomplishments, my self esteem goes up a notch and I don’t have to do a thing.

Writing plays, books or “wrasslin’ cattle,” Christi ties one on.

Just read this bio from her web site, for instance: “Christi Stewart-Brown has had over 40 productions of her plays across the U.S., in Canada, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Stewart-Brown is a four-time Helen Hayes Award nominee and her plays include: Morticians in Love, which ran Off-Broadway in 1995 at the Perry Street Theatre, The Gene Pool, Three More Sisters, Sweet Land of Liberty, Full of Grace, Steak! (co-author), a country-western musical about cattle-rustling vegetarians, and Do Not Use if Seal is Broken, which was made into a film entitled Loungers. Loungers, directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner), was featured at the 1996 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it won the Audience Award and placed second for the Jury Award. Stewart-Brown has also written a work of young adult fiction, entitled Kin. Click HERE to read reviews at amazon.com.”

“Kin,” poignant young adult reading.

“Kin,” Christi’s latest accomplishment, is an edge-of-the-seat Young Adult read that was satisfying to me as a grown-up as well. Christi is a startling wordsmith, able to spin a phrase creating images before your mind knows what’s happened to it. She is smooth in her verbiage and mischevie0us. When I read her works, I keep turning pages to see what will delight me next. In addition, because she’s clever, her characters have to follow along behind. A review for one of her plays, Morticians in Love, commends her thus: “…Morticians [in Love] is a simple enough idea: the tender story of first love between two devout necrophiliacs. Now, the idea itself gets a laugh, but what’s a pleasure is that Stewart-Brown follows through and creates characters, dialogue, and stagings that are a real joy to watch. It’s so depressing to see ingenious ideas or plots wasted by paper-thin characters, or to watch great characters ruined by dumb dialogue. Morticians scores on all counts, following up a great idea with solid writing.” — Matthew Richter, The Stranger (Seattle)

But, the most amazing thing about Christi is the entourage of friends she is carrying through life. Just reading through her Facebook page, she has blessed many people with her friendship and they, remembering her birthday is today, have left comments by the dozens. You have to see it to believe it! What love, what tributes and all of these friendship go back years, even years and years. Why, Christie’s friends are writing poems, making movies and singing original compositions for her birthday, each vying for her attention. Why, the staggering fanfare is giving competition to the Queen of England’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee, celebrating her sixty years on the throne.

Christi’s friend, Gavin Derek is moved to song. What a guy! LOVE this.

So, don’t be left out of the party! Go to Christi’s Facebook page and say, “Hi!,” check out her books on Goodreads and look to Amazon to see all of her books and mentions, some in the Kindle’s immediate download. Make Christi’s birthday a fiftieth to remember and grab on to a bit of her intellectual celebrity presence, for she is Renaissance in her command of many venues.

Every now and then, someone comes along with spell-binding gifts in order to create joy and happiness for others. Join me in shouting out, “Yay, Christi! Happy Birthday with many more to come.”